Finding the right candidate is often times extremely difficult and the process can send you running in circles. It is important to do things such as being detailed in job descriptions as well as documenting benefits that may appeal to the right candidates. We have included some tips below that can help!
Talented But Difficult Employees
LET’S FIND OUT WHY TALENTED EMPLOYEES ARE NOT EASY TO MANAGE
If we go back to 2004 to the study on the motivation of talented people carried out by Galpin and Skinner, you may recall some very good insights into what is important for talented employees. As a reminder, because it was some time ago now, their study concluded the following:
- They mostly have a particularly strong desire to be in a position of authority and control.
- Their main concerns are about working to the best of their ability and making efforts to master new skills.
- They are more motivated by competition with themselves than by competition with others.
- They are no more motivated by the desire for material and financial rewards than the general population.
Furthermore, there are six common characteristics talented people have that make them difficult to manage. These can include one or more of the following:
- They know what they’re worth to the organisation.
- They are organisationally and politically savvy.
- They have a lot less respect for hierarchy.
- They are demanding and often expect instant access to management and the resources they need.
- They network well and while this is of value to the organisation, it also allows them to move on easily if they are not happy and motivated at work.
- They do not see any need for a manager and this is the exact reason why managing them is so hard.
THE MOTIVATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Oh, I know what’s coming… And you can wipe that grin off your face, I know you are going to hit me with it right? …
So how can you manage someone who doesn’t want to be managed and who doesn’t really see any need for you in any given day?
I think most of us, through experience, already know the answer to this and that is it is key for us to understand what these talented employees are really looking for from their work. Our talented team members have to be managed in a way that is going to allow them to feel a certain level of independence, almost feeling special. If you are there to push them in an evident way, most likely you will drive them away.
They respond best to the coaching management style rather than dictatorial style and as their manager, we are better off accepting our role as benevolent guardians, and leave the authoritarian boss coat hanging elsewhere. It is what it is, and if you are not comfortable with accepting the role, then you need to be prepared for an ongoing process of replacing your best talent more often that you will want.
This is not to say that you should bow down to their every whim but to take an analogy from sport, the best captains who get the most out off all of their players are the captains you don’t even notice.
NEST AND ENCOURAGE TALENTED EMPLOYEES
Do you have in your organisation a stimulating environment for these talented employees? Are you able to provide them with chances to experiment and learn even if sometimes they fail?
If your answer is going to be “not really” well… you are up the creek without a paddle, because that is the habitat they need. You’ve got to be on the active lookout for opportunities and ways to place your talented employees in positions where new capabilities are required. And here’s how you do it.
- Make sure you provide them with a higher challenge and a supportive environment and they will become champions and thrive next to you.
- Hand them the chance of taking further responsibilities on projects or tasks by means of effective delegation in aspects they feel are important.
- Include them in strategic planning and highlight the importance of their role in the success of achieving those plans.
Yes, it’s true; you will have to give them clear goals, specific targets and perhaps sample standards but once you do, giving them the freedom to do it on their own will help prevent you from mismanaging them.
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The Onboarding Experience
If you are going to go to all the trouble and expense of hiring somebody, it makes sense to ensure that their transition into the company is as smooth and seamless as possible. Poor onboarding experiences are one of the major factors in new hires not being productive or engaged and they are also more likely to leave the company within 12 months.
Companies need to think of onboarding in terms of a ship whose safe arrival at its destination depends on every member of the crew being good at their job and pulling their weight. Knowing that your life depends on the effectiveness of your crew is a great incentive for the captain and officers of a vessel to ensure everybody knows their role and performs it to the best of their ability.
While a company won’t hit an iceberg and sink, unengaged and unproductive new employees do pose other dangers – to the company culture and its profitability.
The benefits of onboarding
The Gallup “State of the American Workplace” report in 2013, showed that only 30% of US employees were fully engaged at work yet, “Organizations in the top decile of engagement outperform their peers by 147% in earnings per share, and have 90% better growth trend than their competition.”
Creating engagement among new employees through an effective and ongoing onboarding programme can have many benefits:
- It builds the company’s brand, positioning it as an employer of choice and creates enthusiastic brand advocates
- It reinforces the company culture through exposure to motivated and engaged colleagues
- It increases retention, reducing the disruption and costs related to high employee turnover
- It increases productivity through better management-employee relations and the new employee having all their expectations met.
When you get all of that right it doesn’t just result in a happy employee, it means that the most important person in your company’s universe, your customer, will be exposed to a positive and consistent brand experience.
How to get onboarding horribly wrong
Just as a good onboarding programme can add to a company’s bottom line, doing things wrong can be very costly. It’s not that companies set out to do things in the wrong way but, if they set priorities that override the importance of onboarding, new hires suffer.
The first mistake is confusing orientation with onboarding. The kind of attitude that says, “Here’s your desk, you’re working with these 3 people, the kitchen is over there. Call me if you have any questions.”
Onboarding is an in-depth, ongoing process that ensures staff are imbued with the brand values and goals of the company and settle happily into their new position. Leaving them to their own devices after a short tour of the company is a sure way to deflate their first-day enthusiasm and have them questioning their decision to take the job.
Connected to the first mistake is the Relieved New Colleague Syndrome – “Thank God you’ve arrived! I can take a holiday now.” The new hire is expected to make an instant impact by immediately taking on a heavy workload without having any idea of how to go about it. Their onboarding process ends up being on-the-job learning through trial and error, assisted by occasional micro-learning sessions from their time poor colleagues.
Easy and low cost onboarding tips
MSW works with a lot of agile companies that require contingent management. Because these organizations are dealing with contractors, freelancers and consultants there is often the misconception that onboarding is an unnecessary expense. This could not be further from the truth.
Whatever the employment status of a person working with you or for you, if they don’t know your brand and they are not engaged, they won’t be giving you their best work. Just because they are working with you for a short period doesn’t mean that a few hours of your time to familiarize them with your company won’t reap benefits in the long run.
It could even be something as simple as a video overview of your company followed by a Skype conference call with the people the contractor will be working with.
And finally, here are 3 quick tips to create quick engagement for any new employee:
- Set them up on your IT system with a username, password and email address before they start. This will make them feel welcome and appreciated.
- Get their bank details and send them a small test payment on the first day. This will help allay any worries they might have about snafus on pay day.
- Customize their workspace with little welcoming touches. For example, if you know they are a Manchester United football fan, buy a team mug and put it on their desk. If they are virtual employees, wrap it up and pop it in the post.
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Promoting Employer Brand
YOU ATTRACT PEOPLE BY THE QUALITIES YOU DISPLAY and YOU KEEP THEM BY THE QUALITIES YOU POSSESS
We probably have a thing or two to learn from top experts in the industry. But we are experienced recruitment experts and we deliver the best talent for any business, making sure their talent-retention marks improve tremendously.
Given the recruitment battles we have been in over the years and the overwhelming demand for top candidates, we’ve had to become pretty savvy in advising our clients on the key measures they must implement to make themselves more attractive to all sorts of talents.
This boils down to cooperating with our clients to help improve certain aspects of their Employer Brand.
You could find well over 25,000,000 hits if you decide to Google “Employer Brand”. That number will continue to grow exponentially because it’s a hot topic for every reputable organization. It’s not only about the pillars of recruitment, including talent acquisition, talent engagement and retention. We also believe that your organization should implement the following principles:
- Think about ways to “promote” or “sell” your company in every single job advertisement you post
- Dedicate time to working and improving your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and promoting your EVP across all relevant channels
- Monitor whether your Line Managers and Hiring Managers have professional online profiles.
If they don’t, consider conducting a workshop to explain the importance of maintaining internet profiles that represent the company in the most positive and effective ways, starting with:
A. Consistent photos
B. Consistent use of multimedia across management
C. Correct marketing of the business by promoting its values, culture and teams
D. Making sure your Head of Department, Line Manager and Hiring Managers are all “On Brand,” meaning they speak positively about the company and organization, and they have a solid and appealing digital footprint that will make a candidate take notice and want to work with them immediately.
Business leaders all agree that Employer Brand plays an incredibly significant role in attracting top talent. So it’s important that each member of your team puts their best face forward for the company.
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